Lord Dannatt, the former head of the British Army has said that air strikes in Syria are not enough to defeat IS and the situation can "only be resolved on the ground."
Dannatt supports a move by the UK government for Britain to extend its air strikes against IS to Syria.
U.S. President Barack Obama says he believes Russia will ultimately recognize that IS poses a bigger threat to Russia than opposition groups fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Speaking at a news conference in Paris, Obama said that he did not expect Russia to change its course overnight and stop targeting opposition groups with air strikes, but that there could be a shift over the coming months.
Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a resolution regarding the implementation of special economic measures against Turkey, the Kremlin says.
"Russian Prime Minister D. A. Medvedev has signed a resolution, Regarding Measures for Implementing the Decree of the President of Russia, "Regarding Measures To Safeguard Russia's National Security From Criminal And Other Illegal Activities And Regarding The Implementation Of Special Economic Measures In Relation To The Turkish Republic," the announcement said.
Russia is implementing various economic measures against Turkey in the wake of the downing of a Russian Su-24 war plane near the Syrian border last week.
Shallots, Broccoli & Peaches Among Turkish Goods Banned By Russia
Pro-Kremlin news site RIA Novosti has more details about the goods Russia is banning from being imported from Turkey.
The list includes onions, shallots, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers, gherkins and strawberries as well as the carcasses and offal of chickens and turkeys.
Citrus fruits are also on the banned list, as are grapes, apples, pears, apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums and sloes.
The United Nations has condemned an air strike that hit a water treatment facility in Aleppo last week.
Hanaa Singer, UNICEF's representative in Syria, said that the strike on the al-Khafsa water plant caused "severe damage and cut off piped water supplies on which approximately 3.5 million people depend."
More than 1.4 people in rural Aleppo are still suffering disruptions to their supply, Singer said.
"In Syria, the rules of war, including those meant to protect vital civilian infrastructure, continue to be broken on a daily basis. The air-strike which reportedly hit al-Khafseh water treatment plant in the northern city of Aleppo last Thursday is a particularly alarming example," Singer said.
Singer did not say who was responsible for the air strike that hit the al-Khafseh facility, which is in a government-controlled area. Syrian state media have blamed the U.S.-led coalition for the strike.
Turkish Fruit Imports Banned From January 1
Russia's NTV reports that imports of Turkish fruits, vegetables and poultry are to be banned from January 1. A full list of the banned goods includes table salt.
Russia will still import nuts, milk, dairy products and fish from Turkey, according to Russian media reports.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has rejected the idea of sending thousands of ground troops to fight IS, saying the move would only hand the militant group a recruitment tool that could boost its ranks, Reuters reports.
Clinton also said that it was no longer possible to militarily remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Mashable's Christopher Miller makes a point about Russia's list of banned imports from Turkey.
(The Russian word for turkey is indeyka, however, relating to India rather than to Turkey.)
70,000 "Moderate" Rebels -- Myth Or Reality?
Are there really 70,000 "moderate" Syrian rebels, Michael Stephens of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) asks ahead of a Parliamentary vote in the UK over whether Britain should extend its anti-IS air strikes to Syria.
The figure of 70,000 has been cited as the number of fighters who do not belong to extremist groups and who are committed to fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
But can we consider all these rebels as "moderate"? Well, that really depends what you mean by "moderate."
Stephens notes that:
But while it may be possible to identify 65,000-75,000 personnel in brigades that fight both Assad and IS, the problem is that these groups of fighters, particularly in the north of the country, are not powerful enough to take on al-Qaeda or IS by themselves, or in many cases break their current alliances/ceasefires with them.
For example, Jaysh al-Fatah -- a coalition of seven different groups operating around the northern cities of Aleppo, Idlib and Hama -- is comprised of Salafist jihadists from the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, and the equally unpalatable Ahrar al-Sham and Jund al-Aqsa.
Yet two other groupings in the alliance, Ajnad al-Sham and Faylaq al-Sham, display little such sentiments.
The problem is that numerically within Jaysh al-Fatah the more moderate groups do not stand a chance against the hardliners.